Clothes pins



June 2, 1964 H. A. FAUTEUX CLOTHES PINS Filed May 1, 1961 INVENTOR HEN yLFA'UZTEUX p- MA @14 ATTQBNE'W/Z4 United States Patent 3,135,034 CLOTHES PINS Henri A. Fauteux, RR. 2, Hawkesbury, Ontario, Canada Filed May 1, 1961, Ser. No. 106,884 2 Claims. (Cl. 24-137) My invention relates to clothes pins.

With present day methods of washing and laundering, households are invariably equipped both with electrically driven machines for washing, rinsing and drying the wash. These operations are all performed indoors. Notwithstanding these benefits many housewives prefer fresh air drying, since such form fo drying not only airs the clothes while drying, but also permits of White articles of wash being bleached by the suns rays wihch produce ozone in the vicinity of the wash when hung out of doors. Moreover this outdoor drying gives admirable results as the fresh air appears to result in a wash which is much softer and fresher than a wash which is mechanically dried indoors.

I am aware that there are many forms of clothes pins,v but these pins frequently impart to the clothes carried thereby a creasing of the material which is not desirable. Frequently the articles of wash are suspended from a corner by means of bent wire clothes pins, and the whipping of the wash in windy weather can result, not only in creasing the wash but also in a permanent damage to the textile fabrics from which the clothes are fabricated.

If a wash can be prepared indoors With the clothes pins attached so that the wash may then be taken outdoors and simply hung on a clothes line, then the housewife would be spared a most disagreeable chore, namely that of taking the wash outdoors and then hanging or suspending each article from a clothes line by pinning it on the line.

When the weather is inclement, that step of hanging out the washed clothes can be to a large degree simplified and almost eliminated, since if the clothes pin can be attached to each article of wash indoors, then all the housewife has to do is to simply take the prepared wash outdoors and hang it on the clothes line, and this operation of hanging the wash on the line can be reduced to a minimum of time and labour, so that the housewife is not exposed to any prolonged rigours of outdoor weather.

With my new form of clothes pin, it is easy for a housewife to manipulate the pin with her thumb and index finger while attaching the article of wash to a clothes lines, besides which the clothes pins can be hung on the clothes line by simply pulling the clothes pin downwardly to cause the upper hooked end of the clothes pin to straddle the clothes line. Also in detaching the dried wash from the clothes line it is only necessary to push the bent upper end of the pin upwardly and outwardly, which will permit of the pin being lifted clear of the clothes line, and the Wash with the clothes pin attached is deposited in a clothes basket and taken indoors where the housewife may detach the clothes pins from the wash at her leisure and within the comforts of her home.

My clothes pins are engaged with the clothes lines and may be locked in position thereon, and are consequently not capable of creeping along the clothes line when the wash is attached to the pin and is subjected to boisterous weather with outdoor drying.

I may use a spring for holding the jaws of my clothes pins in firm closed position on an article of Wash, or I may construct the clothes pin so that the upper ends may be locked together, but in both forms of clothes pins I line the gripping jaws of the clothes pin with a fabric or with a resilient material such as rubber, so that there is no possibility of slippage or inadvertently pulling a wash suspended on the pin from disengagement with the pm.

This is very important because Winds of high velocity exert a very pronounced force on a suspended wash particularly if the clothes are being Whipped back and forward by the wind.

To thoroughly explain the nature of my invention, I have illustrated two embodiments of the same which I shall describe in detail, but I wish it to be understood that I do not limit my invention to these specific embodiments, but reserve the right to modify the structural features of the pin within the scope of the claims and without departing from the spirit of my invention.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of a preferred form of clothes pin;

FIGURE 2 is an exploded perspective View of the clothes pin, the parts being separated for the sake of clarity;

FIGURE 3 is a semi-perspective view of an alternative form of clothes pin embodying my invention;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged fragmentary detailed view of a form of clamping jaw showing an alternative manner of securing a resilient facing on the clamping jaw.

Like characters of reference refer to like parts in the several figures of the drawing.

Referring to the drawings, particularly FIGURES 1 and 2 thereof, A represents a clothes pin formed of two pivotally connected members 10 which are provided at the upper end with finger grips 11, and at the lower end with clamping jaws 12.

Each member 10 is provided intermediate of its length with offset integral lugs 13 which are arranged in parallelism, and two of these lugs on one member 10 are each formed with an aperture 14 which are in axial alignment.

The lugs 13 of the other member 10 are formed with hinge pins or pintles 15 which are struck out of the lugs 13 but are formed integral with the lugs, and these pins 15 rotatably engage with the apertures 14 in the first mentioned member 10 so that the two members 10 are pivotally connected together intermediate of their length in a strong effective simple but labour saving inexpensive manner.

The upper part of each member 10 is provided on its inner face, and adjacent to the top of the clothes pin, with a transversely extending depression 16 which does not penetrate through the member 10.

These depressions 16 engage the outwardly offset ends 17 of the U-shaped spring 18 so that this spring is positively retained in position when assembled in the clothes pin.

Each of the members 10 is offset inwardly at its lower end to form clamping jaws 12, and the opposing faces of such jaws are faced with rubber gripping members 19 which members are secured to the jaws 12 by an adhesive so as to leave a continuous unbroken outer surface on this rubber gripping member. These rubber gripping members 19 may, however, be corrugated or roughened on their exposed outer faces, so that when an article of wash is gripped between the gripping members 19 on the jaws 12, the article of wash will be forcibly held between the rubber facings of the jaws and cannot be disengaged therefrom unless such engagement is intentionally performed.

One of the members is much longer than the other member 10, and this elongated portion is bent transversely on line 20 forming an inverted U-shaped upper end, and this elongated portion is then bent outwardly to form an arcuate projecting wall 21 and the free end of the member 10 is then bent inwardly transversely towards the outer face of the member 10, forming a transversely extending arcuate finger grip 22.

The bent elongated upper end of one of the members It) is designed to straddle and frictionally engage with a clothes line B, so that the clothes pin A may be positioned on the clothes line without fear of the clothes pin A creeping along the clothes line.

The members 10 are formed of a rigid material, not readily distortable, such as mild steel, and the spring 18 is formed of a high tensile spring steel and will co-act with the pivotally mounted members 10 to intimately press the rubber faced clamping jaws 12 into gripping engagement with an article of wash to be suspended front such clothes pin.

Referring now to FIGURE 3 of the drawings, a modified form of my invention is illustrated which consists of two members 23 and 24 which are pivotally connected intermediate of their length at the point 25 by a rivet which is struck out from the member 24 and passes through an orifice in the member 23.

The two members 23 and 24 are fabricated from straight, thin, flat strips of similar resilient material and are arranged with their opposing faces in close engagement and with the longitudinal axis of the two strips in close proximity to each other.

The central portions of the two members 23 and 24 are clamped firmly together and the lower portions 26 and 27 which constitute clamping jaws are twisted in a clockwise direction to an angle of 90 and lie in a plane at right angles to the central portion of the clothes pin.

Simultaneously the ends 28 and 29 of the members 23 and 24 are twisted in an anti-clockwise direction through 90 to form the finger gripping portions of the clothes pin.

During this twisting operation the longitudinal axis of each member 23 and 24 are not distorted but form a neutral axis around which the twisting takes place. This is important as the longitudinal axis of each member 23 and 24 will still lie in the same close proximity they occupied prior to the twisting operation.

The upper free end of the member 28 is curled as shown at 30, and to this curled end the bail 31 is pivotally attached.

The upper end of the member 24 is much longer than the upper end of the member 23, and this longer end is bent across a transverse line as shown at 32 to provide an external inverted U -shaped hook the upper end of which is approximately level with the curled end of the member 23 when the members 23 and 24 are in closed position.

The free end of the inverted U-shaped hook below the bend 32 is now offset arcuately outwardly, as shown at 33, and the tip of the free end is then ofiset as shown at 34 to constitute a finger or thumb engaging projection to facilitate mounting the clothes pin on a clothes line or disengaging it therefrom. The arcuate portion 33 and the opposite adjacent portion of the member 24 form a clothes line engagement clamp.

The jaws 26 and 27 of this form of clothes pin are sheathed or provided with a rubber-like covering or coating material which may be attached to the jaws by a suitable adhesive.

This clothes pin structure gives a maximum of strength around the fulcrum point of the rivet 25 and it permits of a certain resiliency of the jaws 26 and 27, and likewise a resiliency between the finger gripping portions 28 and 29 while at the same time the clothes pin is of extremely light weight.

When the pin is in use the jaws 26 and 27 are opened to receive a portion of an article of wash, and as pressure is applied to the finger portions 28 and 29, the jaws are then closed, and the members 23 and 24 are locked in this position by rotating the bail 31 to engage the upper inverted U-shaped bend 32. I have found that when this clothes pin is in use it will sustain a weight up to ten pounds without any slippage taking place between the jaws of the article of wash embraced by the jaws.

With this form of pin it will be clear that the central portion of the pin resists bending, whereas the jaws and the finger gripping ends of the pin are capable of a limited spring movement, and this movement will tend to open the upper end of the pin when closed but such releasing movement will be restrained by the bail 31.

The tendency of resilient movement of the finger gripping ends of the members of the pin also tend to more intimately press the clamping jaws of the pin into engagement with an article of wash held between the clamping aws.

A modified structure for attaching a rubber sleeve to the clamping jaws of my improved clothes pin will be seen in FIGURE 4. Here the lower end of a side member is illustrated, which member in FIGURE 1 of the drawings is designated as 12, but in FIGURE 4 is designated as 12.

This jaw 12 is formed with a looped end, that is the lower end of the jaw is bent outwardly and upwardly in a rectangular form, as shown at 12*, and a rubber-like sleeve 12c is slid over the end of the jaw 12 and then pulled downwardly into the rectangular portion 12, so that the rubber sleeve 12 is held in fixed position relatively to the jaw.

It will be clear that the clamping jaws of the clothes pin when provided with rubber facings, will always present plane cushion opposing faces between which an article of wash can be suspended, at all times giving proper protection to the article of wash when the clothes pin is hung or suspended on a clothes line during a drying or bleaching operation.

What is claimed as new is:

1. A clothes pin comprising a pair of members formed of elongated strips of resilient material with their opposing faces flat and in close engagement, one strip being longer than the other and projecting at the upper end, said members having oppositely twisted upper and lower portions with the longitudinal axis of each strip being undistorted and neutral and lying in close proximity to each other through the major portion of their length, the central portron of the strips being plane and pivotally connected together, the upper twisted portions of the strips providing finger grips and the lower twisted portions of the strips providing jaws, the upper end of the longer strip having a bend on a transverse line to provide an external inverted U-shape hook, and a bail pivotally attached to the upper end of the second member, and coacting with the inverted U-shape hook of the other member to secure Lhe I caws in closed clamping relation and reinforce said 2. A clothes pin comprising a pair of members formed of strips of resilient material with their opposing faces in close engagement and with their longitudinal axes in close proximity, said members having the central portions of the strips being plane surfaces normal to the said oppositely twisted ends of the strips, a pivot passing through the central portions and connecting the two members in pivotal relation, the upper end portions of the strips forming finger grips and the lower end portions forming jaws, and compressing facings mounted on the opposing faces of the jaws consisting of a rubber sleeve embracing the lower end of each jaw, wherein the lower end of each jaw has a doubled back portion on its outer side with an inturned terminal lip that retains the rubber sleeve cushion against displacement.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 6 Haweridge Mar. 3, 1903 McChesney June 19, 1906 Harnis Dec. 22, 1914 Parrett Ian. 16, 1917 Kislingbury July 30, 1940 Johnson Apr. 10, 1951 Helwig Aug. 11, 1953 Land Nov. 24, 1959 Cohen et a1 May 8, 1962 FOREIGN PATENTS Germany Oct. 22, 1951 Norway June 20, 1936 

1. A CLOTHES PIN COMPRISING A PAIR OF MEMBERS FORMED OF ELONGATED STRIPS OF RESILIENT MATERIAL WITH THEIR OPPOSING FACES FLAT AND IN CLOSE ENGAGEMENT, ONE STRIP BEING LONGER THAN THE OTHER AND PROJECTING AT THE UPPER END, SAID MEMBERS HAVING OPPOSITELY TWISTED UPPER AND LOWER PORTIONS WITH THE LONGITUDINAL AXIS OF EACH STRIP BEING UNDISTORTED AND NEUTRAL AND LYING IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO EACH OTHER THROUGH THE MAJOR PORTION OF THEIR LENGTH, THE CENTRAL PORTION OF THE STRIPS BEING PLANE AND PIVOTALLY CONNECTED TOGETHER, THE UPPER TWISTED PORTIONS OF THE STRIPS PROVIDING FINGER GRIPS AND THE LOWER TWISTED PORTIONS OF THE STRIPS PROVIDING JAWS, THE UPPER END OF THE LONGER STRIP HAVING A BEND ON A TRANSVERSE LINE TO PROVIDE AN EXTERNAL INVERTED U-SHAPE HOOK, AND A BAIL PIVOTALLY ATTACHED TO THE UPPER END OF THE SECOND MEMBER, AND COACTING WITH THE INVERTED U-SHAPE HOOK OF THE OTHER MEMBER TO SECURE THE JAWS IN CLOSED CLAMPING RELATION AND REINFORCE SAID HOOK. 